Tuesdays with Hanumanji  
I feel very blessed to be surrounded by such an incredible group of individuals. Tim and Carol invited the community over to their house this evening for a wonderful meal and a chance to relax and to get to know everyone outside of the studio environment. There are 40 people involved in the training and each person is so incredibly interesting to talk to. I found myself in such good conversation that when left I was a bit on cloud nine. Tim and Carol are so gracious and it is a treat to go to their home and have “fellowship” outside under the beautiful Encinitas night sky. What I am finding very interesting about this training is that everyone here expresses so much enthusiasm and dedication to the practice and have done so for such a long period of time it is causing me to feel as if I am a part of something much bigger. 

  
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we sang two incredible Hanuman Chalisas today. The Hanuman Chalisa has this ethereal ability to help dispel some of the inhibitions that block our creativity and sense of achievement. Every Tuesday Tim sings the Hanuman Chalisa after the morning Pranayama and Led Primary Series class. Today there were over 50 of us in the room with everyone participating in the singing of the Chalisa. I am going to go out on a limb here and say I think may have been the best one I have experienced yet. However I am a bit prone to feeling that way when it comes to yoga practice so I wouldn’t be surprised If I feel the same way tomorrow.

  
This mornings’ Pranayama session was “extra spicy” today. Tim turned up the “heat” a bit and gave a couple of long breath holds that got the day started with a solid jolt to the old nervous system. After Pranayama I sat and observed Tim teach the Led Primary Series class. The energy in the room so palpable because Tim worked the practice in a way that I have never seen before. I found myself so glad I was observing because it looked like everyone was so in the zone and focussed and yet people started to quiver and shake and melt down and a few tears were even shed and it got me teary eyed. I caught myself thinking how could watching a yoga session bring me to tears? I am telling you it was that intense. I felt a bit of a headache come on. You know the ones that start when you begin detoxing from intense sweat and focus? What better way to work through a good headache than to practice a Mysore session! So that is what I did. I am being a bit facetious but it did actually help. I had a great realization during practice today. I have noticed that a competitive nature in this environment is really not very beneficial at all. I started to let go of that nagging sense that I needed to perform. I had the thought, “perhaps I could advance by letting go of wanting to advance.” So there is this incredible dance of working harder than one has ever done before and simultaneously letting go of any inclination toward thinking it is possible to move forward without the entire group doing so together. Kind of like knowing you could push to try to be better that your neighbor but it is so much more fun to help your neighbor and both move forward together. Yet how do we do this when no words are exchanged and we are simply moving through our routine silently next to each other? This is where I think it possible to do this by really becoming aware of what our motivation is and then by cultivating a compassionate position it just emanates and that is all there is to it. There was a point where one of the practitioners across from me smiled and joked by saying, “what are we doing this for?” I thought about that for a moment as we were soaked in sweat and working so intensely. This is such an important question! We know the answer to this by this stage in the game. We are dong this because we LOVE it! 

  
Speaking of love, that brings me back to the Hanuman Chalisa. We had a second go at playing and singing it in the afternoon and guess what? It was even better than the one before! 🙂